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rNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, 
FOREST SERVICE. 



THE 



lOUNTRY'S FORESTS. 



WASHINGTON: 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 

1Q14. 






n. OF 0. 

liflAY 16 ■: 



THE COUNTRY'S FORESTS. 



THE NATIONAL FORESTS. 

WHERE THEY ARE. 

There are 163 National Forests, mostly situ- 
ated in the mountains of the West. Others are 
in Michigan, Minnesota, Kansas, Nebraska, 
Arkansas, Florida, Alaska, and Porto Rico. 

Their total area is over 186,000,000 acres, 
which is as much as all the New England 
States and New York, Pennsylvania, Dela- 
ware, Maryland, and Virginia combined. The 
average size of a National Forest is 1,150,000 
acres, or about 1,800 square miles. 

The Government is now buying land in the 
Southern Appalachian and White Mountains 
for National Forests in the East. 

WHAT THEY ARE FOR. 

National Forests are set apart to insure a per- 
petual supply of timber for the use and neces- 
sities of the people of the United States, and 
to prevent destruction of the forest cover 
which regulates the flow of streams. 

34873°—!^ 3 



4 THE COUNTRY S FORESTS. 

WHAT THEY CONTAIN. 

All told, the National Forests contain ap- 
proximately 600 billion feet of merchantable 
timber, worth at least $900,000,000. The other 
resources are worth probably 11,100,000,000 
more, bringing their total value up to some- 
thing like $2,000,000,000. 

They also contain 1,175 watersheds which 
supply cities and towns, and 324 water-power 
and 1,266 irrigation projects developed or in 
course of development. 

HOW THEY ARE ADMINISTERED. 

The Forest Service of the Department of 
Agriculture administers the National Forests: 

It protects them from fire and other destruc- 
tive agencies. 

It builds roads, trails, telephone lines, 
bridges, and other works to make them acces- 
sible. 

It conducts the sale and oversees the cutting 
of mature timber, in accordance with the prin- 
ciples of forestry. 

It regulates the grazing of live stock in a way 
to improve the range and protect the settler 
and home builder from unfair competition in 
its use. 

It issuers permits for the development of 
water power and for the construction of hotels, 



THE COUNTRY S FORESTS. 5 

dwellings, stores, factories, telephone lines, 
conduits, public roads, reservoirs, power trans- 
mission lines, and the like. 

The resources of the National Forests are not 
locked up. The tunber, water, and pasture 
are for the use of the people, and the minerals 
are open to development just as on unreserved 
public land. 

HOW THEY WERE USED IN 1913. 

Over 495,000,000 feet of National Forest 
timber, worth more than $1,075,000, was cut 
under sale by different piuchasers. Contracts 
were closed with 6,000 individual purchasers 
for the sale of more than 2 billion feet of tim- 
ber, worth nearly $4,500,000, to be removed 
during a period of years. 

Over 121 million feet of tunber, worth $192- 
000, were given away to 38,000 settlers, miners, 
and others to develop their farms and claims. 

More than 1,550,000 cattle, horses, and swine 
and 7,860,000 sheep and goats were grazed on 
the Forest ranges by 27,000 stockmen. 

Seventy-six power plants, 800 hotels, rest 
houses, and summer resorts, and 1,400 stores 
and other business buildings were operating on 
the Forests under permit. 

One thousand seven hundred new mining 
claims were patented within the Forests, 



6 THE country's FORESTS. 

where the total mining population was more 
than 24,000. 

Twenty thousand permanent settlers occu- 
pied farms within the Forest boundaries. 

One and one-half million campers, hunters, 
fishermen, and other pleasure seekers used the 
Forests as recreation grounds. 

Anyone desiring information concerning the 
sale of National Forest timber should write to 
the Forester, Washington, D.C., or to the dis- 
trict forester at any of the following places: 
Missoula, Mont.; Denver, Colo.; Albuquerque, 
N. Mex.; Ogden, Utah; San Francisco, Cal.; 
or Portland, Oreg. 

HOW THEY WERE PROTECTED AND IM- 
PROVED IN 1913. 

Forest officers extinguished 2,472 fires during 
the year. 

Fifty per cent of these had burned over less 
than one-quarter of an acre before they were 
put out. 

Forest officers killed 4,686 predatory ani- 
mals, including mountain lions, coyotes, and 
wolves, in order to protect stock grazed on the 
Forests, 

More than 350 miles of road, 275 miles of fire 
line, 3,800 miles of telephone line, and 2,600 
miles of trail were built. 



THE country's FORESTS. 7 

Almost 30,000 acres were sown or planted to 
young trees. 

More than 2,000 miles of road, 773 miles of 
fire line, 15,000 miles of telephone line, and 
16,000 miles of trail have been built, and 
87,000 acres planted or sown on the National 
Forests since they were transferred to the ad- 
ministration of the Department of Agriculture 
in -1905.. 

WHAT THEY BRING TO THE STATES. 

Twenty-five per cent of all receipts from Na- 
tional Forests go to the counties in which they 
lie, to be used for schools and roads. 

In 1913 this amounted to $586,593.39. 

An additional 10 per cent is expended by 
the Secretary of Agriculture upon roads and 
trails constructed primarily for the benefit of 
settlers within the Forests. In 1913 more 
than $234,000 was available for the purpose. 

FOREST FIRES. 

THE LOSS. 

Forest fires in the United States have de- 
stroyed on an average each year at least 
$25,000,000 worth of timber, and have caused 
a loss in stock, crops, buildings, and other im- 
provements of many millions more. 



8 THE country's FORESTS 

In the past 50 years more than 3,000 persons 
have been burned to death in forest fires. 

The Peshtigo, Wis., fire in 1871 burned 
over 1,280,000 acres and cost 1,500 human lives. 
The Hinckley, Minn., fire in 1894 burned 
over 160,000 acres, with a death list of 418. The 
great Idaho, Montana, and Minnesota fires 
of 1910 swept 2,300,000 acres and burned to 
death 127 persons. 

Every fire in the forest, no matter how 
small, may develop into a serious conflagration. 
All that is needed is a strong wind and material 
to feed upon. 

In the State of Michigan alone, forest fires 
during the 10 years between 1901 and 1911 
caused a loss of 120,000,000. 

In Massachusetts forest fires in the last three 
years have caused a damage of over |823,000. 

Forest fires are unnecessary, are nearly al- 
ways the result of carelessness, and may wipe 
out in an hour what nature has taken hun- 
dreds of years to create. 

They destroy existing forests. 

They destroy the possibility of future forests. 

They destroy a great market for labor. 

They destroy the beauty of a region. 

They destroy homes. 

They destroy lives. 

They destroy prosperity. 



THE COUNTRY S FORESTS. 9 

THE CAUSES. 

The three cliief causes of forest fires are 
railroads, campers, and lightning. 

Among them they are responsible for more 
than half the fires that start. 

Sparks from the smokestack and live coals 
from the fire box are responsible for the fires 
which start along railroad rights of way. 

Hunters, pleasure seekers, and others leave 
camp fires burning, or throw lighted matches 
or tobacco into inflammable material in the 
forest. A disastrous fire may result from such 
practices. 

All fires start as small fires. 

THE REMEDY. 

Forest fires can be prevented by: 

Never lea\dng a camp fire until it is out. 

Never making a camp fire in leaves, rotten 
wood, or against a log. 

Never tossing away burning matches or to- 
bacco. 

Never burning brush, grass, or slashings 
during a dry season. 

WHAT IS BEING DONE. 

The Federal Government, 20 of the States, 
and 30 timber owners' associations maintain a 
system of patrol and take other preventive 



10 THE country's FORESTS. 

measures on their lands during danger seasons 
of the year. 

The area thus protected by the Government 
approximates 165,000,000 acres; that protected 
by the States (largely in cooperation with the 
Government as provided by section 2 of the 
Weeks law) 100,000,000 acres; and that pro- 
tected by the timber owners' associations, 
25,000,000 acres. 

As a result of such protection the loss on the 
National Forests in 1912 was kept down to 
$75,000, and on State and private lands to less 
than $200,000. 

Had these lands not been protected the 
loss, based on the average annual fire loss in 
the whole country, would have been many 
times this figure. 

Under section 2 of the Weeks law, the For- 
est Service is cooperating with 17 States in 
protecting from fire the forest cover on the 
watersheds of navigable streams. 

FORESTRY IN THE STATES. 

Twenty-five States have active forest de- 
partments, the majority of wliich employ 
professional foresters. 

Twenty have efficient fire-protective sys- 
tems. 



THE country's FORESTS. 11 

Fourteen have established State forests, 
with an aggregate area of more than 3,400,000 
acres. 

Ten maintain forest-tree nurseries which 
produce each year nearly 10,000,000 small 
trees, about half of which are distributed to 
private owners at cost. 

Pennsylvania has 983,529 acres of State 
forests, has planted to date 2,800 acres with 
young trees, produces 2,500,000 forest tree 
seedlings from its nurseries every year, has a 
number of State forest experiment stations, 
and makes an annual appropriation for forestry 
of about $328,000. 

New York has 1,664,000 acres of State for- 
ests, has planted to date 7,000 acres, produces 
4,500,000 young trees yearly, has established a 
State forest experiment station, and makes an 
annual appropriation for forestry of about 
$164,000. 

Massachusetts has 15,000 acres of State 
forests and 56 separate municipal forests. 
Each year it produces from its nurseries up- 
ward of 1,300,000 young trees. The annual 
appropriation for forestry amounts to about 
$55,000. 

Minnesota has 43,000 acres of State forests, 
and makes an annual appropriation for for- 
estry of about $233,000. Citizens of the State 



12 THE country's FORESTS. 

have planted 250,000 acres of their lands with 
trees. 

Wisconsin has 400,000 acres of State forests, 
and makes an annual appropriation of $95,000 
for forestry. 

STATE FOREST ORGANIZATIONS. 

Those who wish further information con- 
cerning forestry in any particular State should 
write to the proper official listed on pages 13 
and 14. 



THE COUNTRY S FORESTS. 



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